Memento mori meaning of phraseology. Memento mori - translation and origin. See what "Memento mori" is in other dictionaries

“Latin has gone out of fashion now,” wrote Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in “Eugene Onegin.” And I was wrong - Latin expressions often appear in our speech to this day! “Money doesn’t smell”, “bread and circuses”, “a healthy mind in a healthy body”... We all use these aphorisms, some of which are twenty centuries old! We have selected the 10 most famous ones.

1. Ab ovo

According to Roman customs, lunch began with eggs and ended with fruit. It is from here that the expression “from the egg” is usually derived, or in Latin “ab ovo”, meaning “from the very beginning”. It is they, eggs and apples, that are mentioned in Horace’s satires. But the same Roman poet Quintus Horace Flaccus clouds the picture when he uses the expression “ab ovo” in “The Science of Poetry” in relation to a too long preface. And here the meaning is different: to start from time immemorial. And the eggs are different: Horace gives the example of the story of the Trojan War, which began with Leda’s eggs. From one egg, laid by this mythological heroine from a relationship with Zeus in the form of a Swan, Helen the Beautiful was born. And her abduction, as is known from mythology, became the reason for the Trojan War.

2. O tempora! Oh more!

On October 21, 63 BC, consul Cicero gave a fiery speech in the Senate, and it had a fateful significance for Ancient Rome. The day before, Cicero received information about the intentions of the leader of the plebs and youth Lucius Sergius Catilina to carry out a coup and assassinate Marcus Tullius Cicero himself. The plans became public, the plans of the conspirators were thwarted. Catiline was expelled from Rome and declared an enemy of the state. On the contrary, Cicero was given a triumph and awarded the title “Father of the Fatherland.” So, this confrontation between Cicero and Catiline enriched our language: it was in speeches against Catiline that Cicero first used the expression “O tempora! O mores!”, which in Russian means “Oh times! Oh morals!

3. Feci quod potui faciant meliora potentes

Feci quod potui faciant meliora potentes, that is, “I did everything I could, let those who can do better.” The elegant formulation does not obscure the essence: here are my achievements, judge, says someone, summing up his activities. However, why someone? At the source of the expression, very specific people are found - the Roman consuls. It was their verbal formula with which they ended their reporting speech when they transferred powers to their successors. It was not just these words - the phrase acquired precision in a poetic retelling. And it is in this finished form that it is engraved on the tombstone of the famous Polish philosopher and writer Stanislaw Lem.

4. Panem et circenses

This people has been around for a long time, since we began to use our voices
We don’t sell, I forgot all my worries, and Rome, that once
He distributed everything: legions, and power, and a bunch of lictors,
Now he is restrained and restlessly dreams of only two things:
Meal'n'Real!

In the original of the 10th satire of the ancient Roman satirical poet Juvenal there is “panem et circenses”, that is, “bread and circus games”. Decimus Junius Juvenal, who lived in the 1st century AD, truthfully described the mores of contemporary Roman society. The mob demanded food and entertainment, politicians gladly corrupted the plebs with handouts and thus bought support. Manuscripts do not burn, and in Juvenal’s presentation, the cry of the Roman mob of the times of Octavian Augustus, Nero and Trajan has overcome the thickness of centuries and still means the simple needs of thoughtless people who are easy to buy for a populist politician.

5. Pecunianonolet

Everyone knows that money has no smell. Much fewer people know who said this famous phrase, and where the topic of smells suddenly came from. Meanwhile, the aphorism is almost twenty centuries old: according to the Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, “Pecunia non olet” is the answer of the Roman emperor Vespasian, who ruled in the 1st century AD, to the reproach of his son Titus. The son reproached Vespasian for introducing a tax on public latrines. Vespasian brought the money received as this tax to his son's nose and asked if it smelled. Titus answered in the negative. “And yet they are made of urine,” Vespasian stated. And thus provided an excuse for all lovers of unclean income.

6.Memento mori

When the Roman commander returned from the battlefield to the capital, he was greeted by a jubilant crowd. The triumph could have turned his head, but the Romans prudently included a state slave in the script with a single line. He stood behind the commander, held a golden wreath above his head and repeated from time to time: “Memento mori.” That is: “Remember death.” “Remember that you are mortal,” the Romans implored the triumphant, “remember that you are a man, and you will have to die. Fame is temporary, but life is not eternal.” There is, however, a version that the real phrase sounded like this: “Respice post te! Hominem te memento! Memento mori”, translated: “Turn around! Remember that you are human! Memento Mori". In this form, the phrase was found in the “Apologetics” of the early Christian writer Quintus Septimius Florence Tertullian, who lived at the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. “Instantly at sea,” they joked in the film “Prisoner of the Caucasus.”

7. Mens sana in corpore sano

When we want to say that only a physically healthy person is energetic and can accomplish a lot, we often use the formula: “a healthy mind in a healthy body.” But its author had something completely different in mind! In his tenth satire, the Roman poet Decimus Junius Juvenal wrote:

We must pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Ask for a cheerful spirit that knows no fear of death,
Who considers the limit of his life to be a gift of nature,
That he is able to endure any difficulties...

Thus, the Roman satirist did not in any way connect the health of the mind and spirit with the health of the body. Rather, he was sure that a mountain of muscles did not contribute to good spirits and mental alertness. Who edited the text created in the 2nd century AD? The English philosopher John Locke repeated Juvenal's phrase in his work “Thoughts on Education,” giving it the appearance of an aphorism and completely distorting the meaning. This aphorism was made popular by Jean-Jacques Rousseau: he inserted it into the book “Emile, or On Education.”

8. Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto

In the 2nd century BC, the Roman comedian Publius Terentius Afr presented to the public a remake of the comedy of the Greek writer Menander, who lived in the 4th century BC. In a comedy called “The Self-Tormentor,” old man Medenem reproaches old man Khremet for interfering in other people’s affairs and retelling gossip.

Don't you have enough to do, Khremet?
You're getting into someone else's business! Yes it is for you
Doesn't matter at all.
Khremet justifies himself:
I am human!
Nothing human is alien to me.

Khremet's argument has been heard and repeated for more than two thousand years. The phrase “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto,” that is, “I am a man, and nothing human is alien to me,” has become part of our speech. And it usually means that anyone, even a highly intelligent person, carries within himself all the weaknesses of human nature.

9. Veni, vidi, vici

On August 2, according to the current calendar, 47 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar won a victory near the Pontic city of Zela over the king of the Bosporan state Pharnaces. Pharnaces got into trouble himself: after the recent victory over the Romans, he was self-confident and desperately brave. But fortune changed the Black Sea people: Pharnaces’ army was defeated, the fortified camp was stormed, and Pharnaces himself barely managed to escape. Having caught his breath after a short battle, Caesar wrote a letter to his friend Matius in Rome, in which he announced victory in literally three words: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” "Veni, vidi, vici" in Latin.

10. In vino veritas

And these are Latin rehashes of Greek philosophical thought! The phrase “Wine is a sweet child, it is also the truth” is attributed to Alcaeus, who worked at the turn of the 7th - 6th centuries BC. It was repeated after Alcaeus in the XIV book of “Natural History” by Pliny the Elder: “According to the proverb, the truth is in the wine.” The ancient Roman encyclopedist writer wanted to emphasize that wine loosens tongues, and the secret comes out. The judgment of Pliny the Elder is confirmed, by the way, by Russian folk wisdom: “What is on the mind of a sober man is on the tongue of a drunken man.” But in pursuit of a catchy word, Gaius Pliny Secundus cut off the proverb, which in Latin is longer and means something completely different. “In vino veritas, in aqua sanitas,” that is, loosely translated from Latin, “Truth may be in wine, but health is in water.”

Memento mori

Memento Mori.

The form of greeting that was exchanged at a meeting by the monks of the Trappist order, founded in 1664. It is used both as a reminder of the inevitability of death, the transience of life, and in a figurative sense - of a threatening danger or of something sorrowful or sad.

Time is a tyrant, it leaves a shadow on the past, and barely lifts the veil on the future. Centuries will pass, and the new year will bring to someone the same thoughts, the same dreams. Where will I be then? Will we still be together, Nathalie? New Year has periodic mori. (A. I. Herzen, Excerpts from the diary of 1839.)

For several days she walked meekly sad, pretending with all her appearance that she renounced earthly blessings. Everything about her said: memento mori. WITH. (V. Kovalevskaya, My sister. Memories and letters.)

When we forget ourselves and begin to imagine ourselves immortal, how refreshing this simple expression has on us: memento mori! (M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, History of a city.)

After the deaths of her son and husband followed each other so quickly, she [the Countess] felt like a being accidentally forgotten in this world, without any purpose or meaning. She ate, drank, slept, was awake, but she did not live... This state of the old woman was understood by everyone at home, although no one ever spoke about it and everyone used every possible effort to satisfy these needs of hers. Only in a rare glance and a sad half-smile addressed to each other between Nikolai, Pierre, Natasha and Countess Marya, was this mutual understanding of her situation expressed. But these glances, in addition, said something else; they talked about the fact that she has already done her job in life, that she is not all about what is now visible in her, that we will all be the same and that it is joyful to submit to her, to restrain ourselves for this once dear, once as full of life as we are, and now a pitiful creature. Memento mori, these glances said. (L.N. Tolstoy, War and Peace.)

I will appear to you every day, pale and upset. I will make you sad. If you give up your home, I’ll start wandering under the windows, meeting you in the theater, on the street, everywhere, like a ghost, like a memento mori. (I. A. Goncharov, Ordinary history.)

Franz, sick with a hangover, lazily dragged his sore legs along the deck, shaking his bell furiously. Memento mori - said the commander when we came to this call in the wardroom to the dining table... (I. A. Bunin, Spear of the Lord.)

Tchaikovsky always glorifies life through some kind of sad flair. Tchaikovsky's music is an extremely elegant world of human feelings with a constant memento mori. (A.V. Lunacharsky, What A.P. Chekhov can be for us.)

□ Aggressors can be brought to their senses in only one way: they must have no doubt that if they decide to start a new war, then everywhere - both at the front and in the rear - a formidable force will rise up against them, which will not let them escape from just retribution. This force must constantly remind the enemies of peace; memento mori! - Memento Mori! If you start a war, you will be hanged, just as Hitler’s leaders were hanged in Nuremberg! Crimes against humanity do not go unpunished. (O. Kuusinen, Report at a ceremonial meeting in Moscow dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Lenin.)

Latin-Russian and Russian-Latin dictionary of popular words and expressions. - M.: Russian Language. N.T. Babichev, Ya.M. Borovskaya. 1982 .

See what "Memento mori" is in other dictionaries:

Memento Mori- (film) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Memento mori (homonymie). Memento Mori Title original Yeogo goedam II

memento mori- n. m. invar. ÉTYM. 1903; expression latine signifiant "souviens toi que tu es mortel". ❖ ♦ Objet de piété, tête de mort (en ivoire, rongée par des serpents ou des vers), qui aide à se pénétrer de l idée de néant. || Des mementos… … Encyclopédie Universelle

Memento mori- Me*men to mo ri Lit., remember to die, i.e., that you must die; a warning to be prepared for death; an object, as a death's head or a personal ornament, usually emblematic, used as a reminder of death. ...

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English From Latin: (memento mori) Remember death. The expression became known as the greeting formula that was exchanged when meeting each other by the monks of the Trappist order, founded in 1148. Its members took a vow of silence in order to fully ...

Dictionary of popular words and expressions Lat. (memento mori) remember death. Explanatory dictionary of foreign words by L. P. Krysin. M: Russian language, 1998 ...

Memento mori Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (lat.), Denk an den Tod! …Pierre's Universal-Lexikon Memento mori - (lat., »Gedenke des Todes«), Wahlspruch einiger Mönchsorden, z. B. der Kamaldulenser…

Memento mori Meyers Großes Conversations-Lexikon

memento mori- Memento mori, lat. = gedenke, daß du sterben mußt … Herders Conversations-Lexikon

memento mori- reminder of death, 1590s, Latin, lit. remember that you must die... Etymology dictionary

memento mori- NOUN (pl. same) ▪ an object kept as a reminder that death is inevitable. ORIGIN Latin, remember (that you have) to die … English terms dictionary

- any reminder of death…English World dictionary

• Books

Memento mori. Stories are not for the nervous. 1992 edition. The condition is good. Translation from English. The collection contains stories written in the fantasy style. In the USA, England, Western Europe, works of this genre... We all someday we'll die Memento mori. And me, and you too. " "or remember about of death . Sooner or later it will come. Like, like the desire to sleep. Are you sleepy? Does it make sense? be afraid of death ? Where did it come from? fear of death ? There are two reasons here. The first and second are religious. And as a gift -.

• fear of pain
• heights;
• insects (not to be confused fear with disgust);
• strangers (will steal, rob);
• and many others...

The important fact is that children ? Where did it come from? absent. Exactly until the parents develop it. In the form of excessive and caring, aggressive reactions to cognitive activity and toxic comments (“you’re in grave you will bring", " "or remember about you want mine") And the absence of parents (read breadwinners) = terrible, painful death, which the TV will eagerly and colorfully tell him about.

The second, more modern reason is the religious fear of death.

Everyone brings their own personal experience from practice, but everyone is convinced that... The thing is evil, but it puts your brain in order. I sincerely recommend going through this at least once.

Two deaths not to happen, one cannot be avoided.

Therefore, when it comes - . Absence fear of death It won't make you invulnerable, but it will definitely make life easier and brighter. By expanding the boundaries of your consciousness, you increase your capabilities, and you expand your boundaries. This is called a double bind. On the same principle, Omar Khayyam said:

"Who was dying, he knows that he lives!

But here too. Memento mori.

1 Memento mori

Memento Mori.

The form of greeting that was exchanged at a meeting by the monks of the Trappist order, founded in 1664. It is used both as a reminder of the inevitability of death, the transience of life, and in a figurative sense - of a threatening danger or of something sorrowful or sad.

Time is a tyrant, it leaves a shadow on the past, and barely lifts the veil on the future. Centuries will pass, and the new year will bring to someone the same thoughts, the same dreams. Where will I be then? Will we still be together, Nathalie? The New Year is a periodic memento mori. (A. I. Herzen, Excerpts from the diary of 1839.)

For several days she walked meekly sad, pretending with all her appearance that she renounced earthly blessings. Everything about her said: memento mori. WITH. (V. Kovalevskaya, My sister. Memories and letters.)

When we forget ourselves and begin to imagine ourselves immortal, how refreshing this simple expression has on us: memento mori! (M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, History of a city.)

After the deaths of her son and husband followed each other so quickly, she [the Countess] felt like a being accidentally forgotten in this world, without any purpose or meaning. She ate, drank, slept, was awake, but she did not live... This state of the old woman was understood by everyone at home, although no one ever spoke about it and everyone used every possible effort to satisfy these needs of hers. Only in a rare glance and a sad half-smile addressed to each other between Nikolai, Pierre, Natasha and Countess Marya, was this mutual understanding of her situation expressed. But these glances, in addition, said something else; they talked about the fact that she has already done her job in life, that she is not all about what is now visible in her, that we will all be the same and that it is joyful to submit to her, to restrain ourselves for this once dear, once as full of life as we are, and now a pitiful creature. Memento mori, these glances said. (L.N. Tolstoy, War and Peace.)

I will appear to you every day, pale and upset. I will make you sad. If you give up your home, I’ll start wandering under the windows, meeting you in the theater, on the street, everywhere, like a ghost, like a memento mori. (I. A. Goncharov, Ordinary history.)

Franz, sick with a hangover, lazily dragged his sore legs along the deck, shaking his bell furiously. Memento mori - said the commander when we came to this call in the wardroom to the dining table... (I. A. Bunin, Spear of the Lord.)

Tchaikovsky always glorifies life through some kind of sad flair. Tchaikovsky's music is an extremely elegant world of human feelings with a constant memento mori. (A.V. Lunacharsky, What A.P. Chekhov can be for us.)

□ Aggressors can be brought to their senses in only one way: they must have no doubt that if they decide to start a new war, then everywhere - both at the front and in the rear - a formidable force will rise up against them, which will not let them escape from just retribution. This force must constantly remind the enemies of peace; memento mori! - Memento Mori! If you start a war, you will be hanged, just as Hitler’s leaders were hanged in Nuremberg! Crimes against humanity do not go unpunished. (O. Kuusinen, Report at a ceremonial meeting in Moscow dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Lenin.)

2 Memento mori

3 memento Mori

See also in other dictionaries:

Memento Mori- (film) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Memento mori (homonymie). Memento Mori Title original Yeogo goedam II

memento mori- n. m. invar. ÉTYM. 1903; expression latine signifiant "souviens toi que tu es mortel". ❖ ♦ Objet de piété, tête de mort (en ivoire, rongée par des serpents ou des vers), qui aide à se pénétrer de l idée de néant. || Des mementos… … Encyclopédie Universelle

Memento mori- Me*men to mo ri Lit., remember to die, i.e., that you must die; a warning to be prepared for death; an object, as a death's head or a personal ornament, usually emblematic, used as a reminder of death. ...

Memento mori- From Latin: (memento mori) Remember death. The expression became known as the greeting formula that was exchanged when meeting each other by the monks of the Trappist order, founded in 1148. Its members took a vow of silence in order to fully ... From Latin: (memento mori) Remember death. The expression became known as the greeting formula that was exchanged when meeting each other by the monks of the Trappist order, founded in 1148. Its members took a vow of silence in order to fully ...

memento mori- lat. (memento mori) remember death. Explanatory dictionary of foreign words by L. P. Krysin. M: Russian language, 1998 ... Lat. (memento mori) remember death. Explanatory dictionary of foreign words by L. P. Krysin. M: Russian language, 1998 ...

Memento mori Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (lat.), Denk an den Tod! …Pierre's Universal-Lexikon Memento mori - (lat., »Gedenke des Todes«), Wahlspruch einiger Mönchsorden, z. B. der Kamaldulenser…

Memento mori Meyers Großes Conversations-Lexikon

memento mori- Memento mori, lat. = gedenke, daß du sterben mußt … Herders Conversations-Lexikon

memento mori- reminder of death, 1590s, Latin, lit. remember that you must die... Etymology dictionary

memento mori- NOUN (pl. same) ▪ an object kept as a reminder that death is inevitable. ORIGIN Latin, remember (that you have) to die … English terms dictionary

- any reminder of death…English World dictionary

• Books

- (film) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Memento mori (homonymie). Memento Mori Title original Yeogo goedam II

memento mori- n. m. invar. ÉTYM. 1903; expression latine signifiant "souviens toi que tu es mortel". ❖ ♦ Objet de piété, tête de mort (en ivoire, rongée par des serpents ou des vers), qui aide à se pénétrer de l idée de néant. || Des mementos… … Encyclopédie Universelle

Memento mori- Me*men to mo ri Lit., remember to die, i.e., that you must die; a warning to be prepared for death; an object, as a death's head or a personal ornament, usually emblematic, used as a reminder of death. ...

Memento mori- From Latin: (memento mori) Remember death. The expression became known as the greeting formula that was exchanged when meeting each other by the monks of the Trappist order, founded in 1148. Its members took a vow of silence in order to fully ... From Latin: (memento mori) Remember death. The expression became known as the greeting formula that was exchanged when meeting each other by the monks of the Trappist order, founded in 1148. Its members took a vow of silence in order to fully ...

memento mori- lat. (memento mori) remember death. Explanatory dictionary of foreign words by L. P. Krysin. M: Russian language, 1998 ... Lat. (memento mori) remember death. Explanatory dictionary of foreign words by L. P. Krysin. M: Russian language, 1998 ...

Memento mori Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (lat.), Denk an den Tod! …Pierre's Universal-Lexikon Memento mori - (lat., »Gedenke des Todes«), Wahlspruch einiger Mönchsorden, z. B. der Kamaldulenser…

Memento mori Meyers Großes Conversations-Lexikon

memento mori- Memento mori, lat. = gedenke, daß du sterben mußt … Herders Conversations-Lexikon

memento mori- reminder of death, 1590s, Latin, lit. remember that you must die... Etymology dictionary

memento mori- NOUN (pl. same) ▪ an object kept as a reminder that death is inevitable. ORIGIN Latin, remember (that you have) to die … English terms dictionary

- any reminder of death…English World dictionary

• Memento mori. Stories are not for the nervous. 1992 edition. The condition is good. Translation from English. The collection contains stories written in the fantasy style. In the USA, England, Western Europe, works of this genre... Buy for 160 rubles
• Ballad of the suburbs. Memento mori, Muriel Spark. "The Ballad of the Suburbs" is a novel that critics compare with Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita". The charming demon Dougal Douglas not only tempts the inhabitants of a cozy petty-bourgeois “paradise”,…